The Met Opera’s Financial Crisis: Three Takeaways from the New York Times Story

I’m quoted in a story in the New York Times today about the dire financial problems at the Metropolitan Opera:

“Some people doubt that an institution like the Met could ever close and think that with his usual aplomb, Gelb will produce a saving twist in his next act.

“The stakeholders that care about the Met are vast,” said Hannah Grannemann, an associate professor of arts administration, “whether you think about the City of New York or you think about donors. A bailout is possible — someone could come in with a large amount of money to save it, if it indeed is at that kind of brink.”

Julia Jacobs, the culture reporter at the Times, contacted me after reading my post on my website from September 2025, Is the Met Opera “too big to fail?” 

As my quote suggests, I still think the Met is too big to fail. If it was at the point of collapse, it would be saved. It’s also possible that it diminishes and diminishes over the next several decades, perhaps closing way down the line.

Nothing in the article makes me think that there is a viable plan for their recovery. Here are some takeaways:

• Cash flow is everything: The very first thing I learned in business school is that cash flow is everything. If you don’t have enough money flowing to keep the doors open, you can’t earn revenue to…keep the doors open. That’s true for a restaurant, Sears, and a nonprofit opera company. All the machinations and compromises – the Saudi deal, the “sale” of the Met’s Chagall paintings, naming rights on the building – are about feeding cash into a hungry organization that churns upwards of $300 million each year. You can cut costs, but revenue is the only thing that will get you out of a downward spiral.
• The endowment won’t save them: An endowment is meant to provide steady income from investment returns, not spending down the principle. Dipping into the endowment corpus is a sign of financial distress. Make no mistake: the fact that they’ve been doing it to the extent they have for as long as they have is really bad.
• Stakeholder confidence: Nothing in the article suggests a plan that will inspire confidence from donors or audience – exactly the two groups the Met needs to stabilize its future. To hear Gelb say they are “scrambling” to find a new business model doesn’t make a donor want to open their checkbook. But he’s only saying what we can all see with our own eyes.

The only quick fix I see is if there are enough people inspired to revenge purchase to spite Timothée Chalamet and prove to him that opera is relevant. Otherwise, the Met seems to still be grasping for its next big idea — the kind that resets both audience excitement and donor confidence.